Protect our postal privacy
By Troy Felvor
web posted May 6, 2002
The federal government has had an abysmal privacy record, and
the United States Postal System is no exception.
With its "Under the Eagle's Eye" program, the USPS believes it
has a duty to force its employees to report so-called "suspicious"
transactions to law enforcement. The Post Office's training
manual states, "It is better to report many legitimate transactions
that seem suspicious than let one illegal one slip through." While
most details of the program are secret, what qualifies as
suspicious activity is almost always legitimate activity, even by its
own account. Some details have come to light. This program
assumes someone buying a money order over $3000 is
suspicious enough to be reported to the federal government. In
addition, if someone buys several large money orders under this
limit, the postal employee is also required to report it.
These regulations disproportionately target poor minorities who
conduct their finances without the aid of the banking system. If
Citibank or the Chase Manhattan forced this segment to justify
such small sums, Jesse Jackson would demand billions in
reparations from our financial system. The Feds deserve no
special pass to ignore the laws they created. Laws good enough
for our citizens are certainly good enough for our public servants.
The Postal Service should focus on improving its shoddy mail
delivery, not tracking innocent customers with no suspicion of
criminal activity. "Under the Eagle's Eye" is an un-American
program that presumes guilt and looks for truth later. Free
people should not be treated like criminals in everyday
transactions. and the American people deserve far better privacy
protection than they receive.
The National Change of Address Database is also a terrible
miscarriage of privacy that facilitates marketing abuse and
identity fraud. Direct marketers have easy access to this
database. They can quickly use it find the new address of
anyone who takes the time and care to fill out one of these cards
at any post office. This database guarantees people in addition
to the few items they wish to receive from their previous
residences, unwanted mail will also have a beacon to find them
wherever they relocate in this country. Also, given the insecurity
of personal mailboxes, these change of address forms create
ample opportunity for identity fraud. All that is needed to
forward mail is name and address, and a thief can have anyone's
mail forwarded to another location if he steals the confirmation
notice from victim's mailbox.
The change of address process has many risks unknown to the
consumer. The United States Postal Service should be more
forthcoming about disclosing the dangers in the current process,
and this agency must begin working vigorously to develop better
methods for consumers to obtain their misdirected mail.
The USPS also actively stifles tax-paying businesses with its
regulatory authority, and consumers pay the price in lost privacy.
The Postal Service requires that all Commercial Mail Receiving
Agencies (CMRAs) offering private mailbox rentals to collect
confidential information from their customers and furnish to the
Postal Service. The USPS itself is not permitted to collect this
information, and this is a blatant attempt to drive out competitors
providing the public a valuable service. These CMRAs such as
Mail Boxes, Etc. allow a customer to receive US mail, FedEX,
UPS, Airborne Express, and others all in one location at hours of
the customers' choosing.
The USPS used claims of fraud at these Commercial Receiving
Agencies as a pretext to bully value-adding competitors so it can
protect it lucrative revenues from postal mail boxes. Consumers
have voted with their feet, and they value the services these
agencies provide. Small business should not have to choose
between service or privacy. Competitive bullying is no more
pleasant when perpetrated by state run businesses. Why aren't
the Microsoft foes protesting the USPS?
The United States Postal Service should begin to act like a
private company and either protect customers' privacy or we
should get a choice. Taking customers for granted is something
private business cannot survive doing for long, and it is time for
the post office to stop acting like a government agency and more
like a consumer friendly operation. It should not be permitted to
function like a private corporation when it wishes to market itself
and like a government agency when it snoops on its customers,
raises rates to cover its management fiascoes, or bullies its
competitors.
This massive bureaucracy uses its special status as a Government
Sponsored Enterprise to have the worst of both the private and
public sector worlds. One can only imagine the management
quagmire in an organization with nearly three times as many
employees as General Motors coupled with the lack of
accountability of a Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Internal
Revenue Service.
We trust private concerns to grow and distribute our food, build
our homes, and produce supersonic passenger jets. Companies
traded on the NASDAQ can precisely manufacture Pentium 4
microprocessors and GPS satellites, but some people make the
ludicrous argument the private mail delivery is simply impossible.
Only an unaccountable government bureaucracy would charge
the same price to mail your electric water bill as a letter from
Portland to Miami. This type of bureaucratic organizational
culture has only one answer to all of its shortcomings: rate
increases.
Consumer concerns are forgotten because no one is punished for
ignoring them. Consumers care about privacy, and with so many
other competing communications methods, the USPS must
protect privacy or "Go Private" in more ways than one.
Troy Felvor is Coalition Coordinator for the Coalition for
Constitutional Liberties, a project of the Center for Technology
Policy at the Free Congress Foundation (http:
//www.FreeCongress.org).
Enter Stage Right - http://www.enterstageright.com